Out Of Sight (1998)
Armoured (2009)
The Film: Nimrod Antal directs this poor man's Reservoir Dogs about, you guessed it, a heist gone bad.
Tarantino-Esque Elements: The film takes place almost entirely within an industrial warehouse, as our gang of crims sit it out, bickering with one another relentlessly. You've seen it all before.
Mr Purple Or Mr. Pink: While Reservoir Dogs ' characters were richly drawn wiseguys we were only too happy to hang out with, this motley crew get pretty old pretty quickly.
Give 'Em Hell Malone (2010)
The Film: Thomas Jane stars as a good-natured gunman taking on a Dick Tracy-esque rogues gallery in this stylised neo-noir.
Tarantino-Esque Elements: If QT were to turn his hand to a classic film noir it would probably come out something like this, all cartoonish villains, sharp suits and hard-boiled dialogue. Needless to say, its plenty violent too.
Mr Purple Or Mr. Pink: It doesn't take itself too seriously, and as a bit of throwaway fun, you could do worse.
Blood, Guts, Bullets And Octane (1998)
The Film: Joe Carnahan's terribly titled tale of a pair of used car salesmen who fall into an ill-thought out scheme to save their failing dealership.
Tarantino-Esque Elements: The writing is wannabe-Tarantino by the numbers, with every other character coming across as articulate, quirky and full of observations concerning the vagaries of human nature.
Mr Purple Or Mr. Pink: It's not an outright disaster, but the dialogue is far to verbose for its own good. Sometimes, less is more.
Dead Bolt Dead (1999)
The Film: British director James Rogan was just 18 years old when he directed this tale of a pair of gunmen, one holding a couple hostage while the other attempts to hold off Mr. Big.
Tarantino-Esque Elements: As well as the job-gone-bad set-up, the script is incredibly wordy, with Rogan making plenty of room for his cast to get their monologue on…
Mr Purple Or Mr Pink: As you might expect, it's far from perfect, but Rogan's work is still remarkably mature for his age, while Neil Stuke is great in the leading role.
Hit And Run (2012)
The Film: Dax Shepherd's clunky crime comedy, in which he stars opposite real-life girlfriend, Kristen Bell.
Tarantino-Esque Elements: The film is stuffed with pop-culture references (Shepherd's character is named "Charlie Bronson"), narrative pauses designed for lengthy, archly trivial conversations, and even a quirky villain, in the form of a dreadlocked Bradley Cooper, who lays his pooch-loving cards on the table by terrorising a shopper for buying low-grade dog food.
Mr Purple Or Mr Pink: Not only is this a lazy approximation of QT's oeuvre, it's arrived over a decade past its sell-by date.
Legion Of The Dead (2001)
The Film: Special FX guru Olaf Ittenbach's gore-soaked road movie. It's utter chaos.
Tarantino-Esque Elements: Ittenbach is clearly a fan of From Dusk Till Dawn , leaning heavily upon its petty-crims-meet-undead-hordes story arc.
Mr Purple Or Mr Pink: If you thought From Dusk Till Dawn was a bit unbalanced, you ain't seen nothing yet...
Shoot The Hero (2010)
The Film: A frankly bizarre crime picture with Jason Mewes in the lead as an unlikely hero who finds himself at the centre of a jewellery store hold-up.
Tarantino-Esque Elements: Various generic crime-movie set-ups come colliding into each other with all the subtlety of a fender bender. The castign of Danny Trejo and Fred Williamson is the closest this comes to genuine Tarantino territory.
Mr Purple Or Mr Pink: A load of old guff. We like Jason Mewes very much, but a crime film's leading man he is not.
3,000 Miles To Graceland (2001)
The Film: Demian Lichtenstein's box-office bomb, in which Kevin Costner and four other guys in Elvis gear conspire to knock off a casino.
Tarantino-Esque Elements: Described in our official review as "Tarantino does Troma", this one tries very hard to mix up an inventive heist with wacky characters and pop-culture savvy dialogue. Sadly, Kurt Russell would have to wait for the man himself to revitalise his career…
Mr Purple Or Mr Pink: Macho bullshit from start to finish. Lichtenstein aims for sharp, snappy dialogue, but ends up with David Arquette saying the smartest thing to come out of a woman's mouth is "Einstein's cock".
Hell Ride (2008)
The Film: A grindhouse-style B-movie, released under the banner "Quentin Tarantino presents". No wonder he liked it… it borrows heavily from him!
Tarantino-Esque Elements: It's a biker flick stuffed full of customized weaponry, copious amounts of tit-shots and Michael Madsen playing a character known as The Gent. It's everything QT looked to repopularise with Grindhouse !
Mr Purple Or Mr Pink: It actually delivers its seedy thrills more consistently than the patchy Grindhouse , and at just 83 minutes, it doesn't stick around long enough for the novelty to wear off.
